An analysis of President Mahmoud Abbas’s speeches held in the United Nations General Assembly in the light of the PLO charter

Abstract

This thesis presents an analysis of President Mahmoud Abbas's speeches held in the United Nations General Assembly in the light of the PLO charter. The speeches analyzed are from the year of 2014 until the year of 2019. The research question of this thesis is; how does President Mahmoud Abbas's rhetoric reflect the Palestinian Authority’s attitude towards peace with the state of Israel in the public discourse? Other questions which this research asks and tries to answer are; How does the Palestinian Authority with Mahmoud Abbas communicate who their “enemies” are? And how does Mahmoud Abbas portrait the Palestinian Revolution? To examine this, I used the theoretical framework of religion, heroes, and victims, dangerous speech among others. Qualitative thematical content analysis is conducted in the research. This thesis concludes that President Mahmoud Abbas's rhetoric reflects a duality in the Palestinian Authority's attitude towards peace with the state of Israel in the public discourse. It also shows that the Palestinian Authority with Mahmoud Abbas communicates who their “enemies” are to a great extent. Mahmoud Abbas portraits the Palestinian revolution as a war of liberation. A revolution where those who are willing to sacrifice their lives or commit crimes against Israeli civilians are looked upon as a noble act, justified and financially rewarded by the PA, and saluted by Abbas domestically, but also in front of the United Nations General Assembly.